Richard Trevithick made the first automobile in Cornwall in 1799; he used the second cylinder that Watt had added to the steam engine and high pressure steam together with a valve-gear he designed so the car could run automatically without a lever being pulled back and fore. He called his car Locomotive. In 1804 he built the first automatic steam locomotive to haul coal from Pen-y-Darren Coal Mine to Cardiff docks.

The steam cars may not have been as famous as the steam railway locomotives of the nineteenth century, but they were used extensively.

Petrol Cars

In 1886 Karl Benz patented the first gasoline engine motor car, and started the Mercedes Benz car company which makes cars to this day.

Although BMW does not aim their quality range of cars at a price most people can afford they are developing the next generation of cars. They are removing the valve gear that was thought of by Richard Trevithick over 200 years ago and replacing it with an electronically operated solenoid. Also they are replacing the alternator with a TEG in the exhaust system. These advances should make their cars more powerful and fuel efficient.